Page 88 of Teacher's Pet

"It’s okay."

Slowly, I reach for her wrists, rubbing my thumb over her skin, coaxing her arms down.

She lets me.

She lets me see her.

And for the first time, I allow myself to see the aftermath.

Her blood streaks her inner thigh, marring her soft skin.

The bruises bloom across her hips, wrists, thighs, the evidence of my lack of restraint.

This is the part I choose not to see.

This is the part I always avoid.

But with her, I can’t look away.

Her voice cuts through the silence, small, fragile in a way that makes my stomach churn.

"Cole used to make comments," she whispers.

My fingers still against her wrist.

"After he was done fucking me, he would point out everything I needed to ‘work on.’"

Her breath shakes, but she keeps going.

"He always blamed it on his ‘clarity’ after finishing, but now I know-" she swallows, her voice dropping, "Erica was on his mind."

Something dark and cold coils inside me.

Fucking bastard.

In every other moment, Ana has been fierce, unyielding, never afraid to challenge me, never hesitating to take what she wants.

I never imagined she carried this.

I never imagined she had been torn down like this before.

The men in her life have only ever known how to do one thing.

Hurt her.

And now I’m faced with a decision.

Repeat their patterns.

Push her away.

Use her until I’m done and let her walk away like all the others.

Or...

Or I do something that feels foreign to both of us.

Something that scares me more than anything else ever has.

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